Sail Pandora

It’s Monday morning and we are anchored close to a lovely beach that is several miles long in an area of Cat Island known as New Bight.  The shoreline is very low and has a few simple, if brightly painted homes and businesses.  It is a small settlement and very modest, as is typical of the Bahamas out-islands.

Yesterday Brenda and I came here from Georgetown and made the 50 mile run after taking time to visit friends to say our goodbuys.  It’s going to be months, if not longer till we see some of them again.  Hopefully, some will make it to our three day SSCA gam (event) in Essex in late June.  It will be nice to see them again sooner or later.  Sooner would be better.

One couple that we visited were Mark and Kathy who live aboard Corina, a 41’ Manta brand catamaran.  Yes, those funny boats with two hulls do hold a real appeal.  They have so much room and sail flat.  That certainly beats 25 degrees of heel aboard Pandora.  However, that’s another topic.

Anyway, Mark and Kathy had spent a month in the Jumentos, a spot that we had hoped to visit but never got to this year due to the cold fronts that were coming through so often.  One of the best parts of visiting the Jumentos is walking the beaches to see what has washed up.  “Sea Beans” are a particularly special find there.  Sea beans are the large seeds of tropical plants that wash down rivers in South America  and Africa and are carried by the currents and finally come ashore on islands in the Bahamas.  The areas of the southern Bahamas tend to collect more of these “beans” and as there are so few visitors, there are lots to be found.  We have run into friends who have collected hundreds of these over a season.  Mark takes these beans and polishes them to make necklaces.  And, as an added bonus, he’s willing to part with them.  Mark doesn’t take money for his work, just wine.  And what a nice trade it is.  Brenda really wanted one of these necklaces as she had seen Mark’s work on our friend Anne, of the cat Nati.    Cathy is also very talented, and with sea glass she picks up along the way, makes very pretty earrings.  Happily, Brenda was able to get a very nice “matching” set of earrings and sea bean necklass.  The “bean” is called a “hamburger bean” as it has a light stripe with dark sides.  Very pretty.  Happy Brenda. The downside of all the goodbyes was that we left a couple of hours later than we should have to make the run to Cat.  50 miles is a long run to make in a single day and it turned out that while we were able to get to Cat while it was still light out, the sun was setting as we dropped anchor. 

While we were able to sail much of the way. we were hard on the wind most of the time, and with a few squalls passing us, we had to contend with some major wind shifts that made sailing impossible for part of the run.  All and all, we had a good run but a long day none the less.  Unfortunately, Brenda was feeling a bit seasick as the swells were running pretty high, especially in the beginning, so it wasn’t a great run for her.  And frankly, I don’t particularly like sailing hard on the wind either.

However, as we dropped the anchor close to shore we were treated to a beautiful sunset and, as an added plus, a lovely moon rise.   And a lovely moon rise in the eastern twilight.  I understand that there will be a partial eclipse of the moon tonight.  That will be neat.Today Brenda and I will likely do a bit of beach combing and perhaps exploring in “town”, such as it is. 

Our friends on Kaloonamoo, Bill and Maureen, are joining us here as they are currently underway from Georgetown..

Perhaps we’ll also head up to Father Gerome’s place nearby with them on Tuesday.

Happily, it looks like we will have several days of settled weather here so we will be able to relax and enjoy the solitude here at Cat Island for a bit.  Last year, when we visited, we had to run for cover ahead of a wind shift after only two nights.  Perhaps our luck will hold this year for a longer stay.

Fingers crossed…

It’s Sunday morning and, I can’t believe I am saying this, there’s not enough wind.  Go figure.  After months of TOO MUCH WIND, and constant fronts coming through the Bahamas, we are (fingers crossed) entering a week of moderate easterly trade winds and calm conditions. 

I am afraid to say it but as the weather router is saying the same thing, perhaps I won’t be jinxing it by wishing for the best.

Yesterday was unusual with rain and drizzle for much of the day.  Along with the rain came very light winds, something that I had been waiting for as I had to pull down my genoa (sail) for a minor repair as there was a small rip on the luff tape (if you know what a luff is that’s good, if not, don’t worry).   However I didn’t want to deal with 600 square feet of sail on the foredeck unless the wind was light.  So, after perhaps 6 weeks of waiting, yesterday was the day.  Sail down…As I didn’t bring my heavy duty sewing machine with me on this trip, I had to resort of hand sewing and adhesive sail cloth tape.  It was pretty crowded up forward with the sail down.  Happily, I was able to do much of the work prior to the light rain starting.  As you can imagine, the sail repair tape wouldn’t have stuck well to a wet sail.   Lots of sail to contend with.

I stitched the damaged area as best I could and then applied sail repair tape over the stitching.  After that, more stitching.The finished work.  Not great to look at but it should hold till I get a proper repair done at a sail loft.  I usually take the sails to a loft each winter for washing and repair.  As I am no longer putting the boat into storage in the winter, I didn’t do that last fall.  My mistake as the problem would have shown up and been repaired correctly.   Well, good enough for now.It seems that there are always problems, big and little on a boat and Pandora’s no different.  As I had mentioned the other day, I had to sort through an electrical problem a few days ago.  I was able to track down the problem but still don’t know how it happened.  Here I am working away on a solution.  Q: Did anyone notice that I have become a bit grey?  Hmm… We are still contemplating whether we will leave for Cat Island today or tomorrow. We’ll have to think about it for a few more hours and see how the breezes develop.    It could be a nice easy sail today.  That would be great. 

Our friends Russell and Lynn, aboard Blue Highway, got an early start today and sailed past us as I was sitting in the cockpit having a cup of coffee in my jammies.   Nice people.Off into the sunset, er, sunrise…Perhaps we will be out soon.  If not today, tomorrow.  Happily, no repairs to do today.  No, wait, I might jinx it…  Never mind. 

It’s Saturday morning and I just listened to Chris Parker, the weather router to hear what’s in store for the weather for the next few days.  Yes, there’s yet another cold front coming but it doesn’t look like it will penetrate far into the Bahamas.  That’s good as we would very much like to leave Georgetown and head up to Cat Island, about 50 miles NE from here.  

While the wind angle is not particularly favorable for a run to Cat, it looks like we will have better conditions by Sunday or Monday to Make the run.   Another consideration about going to Cat is to find out how long the winds will continue out of the east as we would like to stay  there for a few days, at least.  The winds have to have an easterly component the entire time we are there as there is NO protection from any sort of clocking winds, such as we have lived with much of the winter.

Now that spring is here, it seems that we are seeing some more moderate conditions.  Let’s hope that it holds.  That’s not to say that all is easy on the east coast of the US as there will be gales off of Cape Hatteras later in the week.  Fortunately, the conditions that are causing those strong winds won’t be a big factor here in the Bahamas.  Hopefully, when it’s time for me to run Pandora back up to CT the weather will cooperate.  Gales aren’t much fun and getting home with a minimum of fuss would be nice.

Last evening Brenda and I were invited over to Cat’s Meow, the 80’ catamaran that I mentioned in my last post.  Don and LaVonne, were great hosts.  They also invited two couples from other boats in the harbor, one from Annapolis and the other from Belgium to join the festivities.

It was a very pleasant evening and listening to heavily accented English spoken by the couple who’s native tongue was French was very interesting.  Brenda and I have been talking about visiting that part of Europe later this year but have been having difficulty finding how we will fit it into our plans.  It would be great fun to visit there in the summer but we really don’t want to be away from our land home during the time of year that the weather is so wonderful.  Alas, such are the trials…

While we were aboard Cat’s Meow, I was offered the opportunity to take a look around the boat and what a boat she is.   To head up onto the bow is like stepping onto a basketball court.  As the boat is 40’ wide.  It’s just massive.

We had cocktails and dinner on the aft deck and the 8 of us were not cramped at all.  I mentioned that they have a Wolf oven on board and to see such a massive stove on a boat is amazing.  I had mentioned that it was 6 burners but it’s actually 8 or perhaps 9.   Huge.

Their master sleeping cabin is quite large, about the same size as our bedroom at home. Bigger actually.  And, they have multiple cabins, several with queen size beds, in the two hulls.   And, all are beautifully decorated with wall hangings.

I can only imagine how much machinery is tucked away behind panels and under the decks to run a yacht of this complexity.   Oh yeah, the mast is so high, at more than 100’, that they are required to put a red 360 light at the top of the mast to warn away low flying planes from bumping into them.

It’s a really big boat, no, make that a really big yacht.  I have heard that the definition of a “yacht” is any boat that is bigger than yours.  Well, I expect that most, would say that Cat’s Meow is a yacht, for sure.   It’s BIG and there’s just so much room and then some more.

When it came time to help clear dinner, I had to ask if the dirty glasses were to go in the galley or in the butler’s pantry.  So much choice…  Cat’s Meow is clearly the largest yacht, and it is clearly a yacht, here in the harbor.   It’s amazing to think of handing such a large “ship” with just two adults.  I asked Don about that and his answer was that they just have to be very careful.  No kidding.

It was a lovely evening and with such an eclectic group of guests, very entertaining.   And, once again, it was fun to have old friends, yet again, enter our lives.   It’s these chance encounters that are such a wonderful part of the cruising lifestyle.

We are looking forward to what I expect will be a good run over to Cat Island.  It will be nice to do a bit of sailing again.  Perhaps we’ll do some fishing along the way.  It would be nice to catch something for dinner.

We’ll likely head the 50 miles to Cat tomorrow.  There’s a very nice resort, Fernandez Bay Resort, where we hope to have dinner.  In case you’re in the mood to have your own island retreat, the resort is currently for sale for $4,900,000. What do you think?  Good deal?  You can always rent a room for about $400 per night.  It would take a LOT of nights at that rate to total up to the purchase price. Hmm…

Last winter we anchored off of the resort and enjoyed a lovely lunch with our friends on Ariel.   Nice place.  There’s Pandora on the right.   Great view.

We’ll also likely visit the Hermitage again, the retirement home of Father Gerome.  When we last visited,  we hiked up the path to where his home was located, the highest point in all of the Bahamas.   My post last year spoke at some length about the history of Father Gerome and his home.  His story is quite entertaining. 

Well, it’s still early and I am hopeful that we’ll be able to go for a walk on the ocean beach later today.   Perhaps with all the wind of the last few days there will be some good shells to pick up.

Oh yeah, yesterday I had a healthy dose of “boat repair in exotic places” when I spent several hours tracking down the cause of an electrical problem that affected one of the pumps on our watermaker and a seemingly unrelated battery monitor.  I won’t bore you with the details except to say that even once I fixed it, I still had no idea how the problem happened at all.  Alas, fixed…

I also took my bent anchor in to town, a 20 minute run, each way, across a very bumpy harbor, to a machine shop to see about having it “unbent”.   After talking to the shop owner I decided to “donate” it for scrap.  Recall that I bent the stock a while back in Staniel Cay.   Nice shot of me “post recovery” earlier in the season.   If you missed that gory details of that debachle, check it out here.Anyway, I had a line on a recently re-galvanized CQR anchor that someone on another boat in the harbor wanted to sell so I bought it.   It took some doing to take off the Fortress anchor that I have been using and replace it with the “new” anchor but I got it done.  I won’t bore you with the details but my back is a bit sore today.

Well, as usual, an eclectic mix of ramblings.  Perhaps it’s time to break for coffee.  Enjoy your day.

Ok, ok, one more photo, taken from on top of my radar arch, a precarios perch.  Now that’s clear water.    And, that’s why the Bahamas are a great place to visit, fronts or not…

It’s Thursday morning and it’s the “morning after” from yesterday’s front.  Actually, it’s been pretty windy for several days with what Chris Parker, the weather router, calls “pre-frontal” winds.

However, as the “actual” front approached mid-day yesterday, we were anchored off of town, across the harbor, a location that was fairly protected when the pre-frontal winds were blowing from the south.  As the front approached, the wind shifted, within just a few hours, from the south to the southwest, west, northwest and finally north.  All this happened in pretty short order accompanied by winds that gusted into the 30kt range accompanied by squalls.  It wasn’t particularly fun, actually.

As you can imagine, things got a bit bumpy and finally, (sort of) between squalls we decided to move over to the other side of the harbor to find a more sheltered spot.

Pulling up the anchor, in a chop that was pushing 4 feet, was a bit challenging but we got it done with a minimum of problems.  However, once we headed over to the other side of the harbor, anchoring in so much wind proved to be tough.

As you may recall, some time back I damaged my Bruce anchor and had switched to a large Fortress anchor that I have had aboard for use in storm conditions.  I hadn’t really used it much but it took the place of my damaged Bruce.

I have to say that, after several weeks of use, I am not all that impressed with it as a primary anchor.  When it sets, it sets hard and fast but so often I found that in weedy conditions it tended to skip along the bottom gathering up loads of weed and not really setting.  There’s nothing quite as frustrating as trying to anchor in strong winds when the anchor won’t hold.    In the interest of fairness, I have also had the same problem with my Bruce in the past.

In the “anchor doesn’t set” department, yesterday was one of those days.  We did quite a tour of the harbor, trying to drop the hook a total of five times and in several locations, until we finally found a good spot.  The problem is that much of Georgetown harbor is moderately weedy and in strong winds anchors tend to load up with weed before they can set properly.  This isn’t as much of a problem when the winds are lighter as the anchor can dig through the weeds and into sand when there is less pressure on the anchor.  That was not the case yesterday.  Not at all.

The Fortress is billed as a sort of “last resort” anchor and many boats carry one on board for storm conditions.  With the exception of powerboats that rarely anchor anyway, you almost never see one used on a sailboat as a primary anchor.  After a month of use, I can now see that the anchor has some limitations. The problem is that it’s hinged and when it’s deployed in very fine sand or mud, the hinge sometimes gets gummed up and won’t move properly.   What this means is that it gets stuck, with the flukes in the “up” position, and just skips along the bottom not hooking at all.   When I pulled up the anchor yesterday, I was shocked to see that one of the flukes and the shaft were slightly bent.  Amazing for such a “tough” anchor.  I have been told that there is a lifetime warrantee on Fortress anchors.  I’ll have to test that when I get home in May.

In order to find a replacement for my Bruce, I made an announcement on the radio net here in Georgetown and there’s a guy with a spare CQR anchor that will fit Pandora nicely.  The CQR is an old style design, but pretty good anchor and works well in most conditions. I plan on visiting that boat today or tomorrow to see if we can work something out.

Anyway, yesterday was pretty rough as the front came through, and I hope that we won’t have conditions like that again anytime soon.   Some folks I was talking to this morning said that yesterday’s frontal passage was the roughest they have ever seen in years of Bahamas cruising.

However, today is a new day and what a beautiful one it is.  The wind is still a bit brisk but the sun is out and shining brightly.  And, we are now in a protected location off of a beautiful beach.

Interestingly, when we finally anchored yesterday (Did I mention that we had some difficulty anchoring?) I noticed that our friends on Cat’s Meow were anchored nearby.  We met them last winter in the Bahamas and really enjoyed their company.  Cat’s Meow is a HUGE catamaran, 80’ long.  La Vonne and Don live aboard and travel up and down the east coast.

We’d love to have them visit us in Essex  but their mast is 102’ tall and they can’t fit under the I-95 CT highway bridge which is (only) about 90’ tall.  That’s a very tall mast.  Their boat is so wide, at 45’, that there are only three boatyards on the entire east coast that can haul them out of the water.  I’ll bet it’s tough to shop for the best price when choice is that limited.  Perhaps folks with 80’ boats aren’t that price sensitive.

There is an interesting story behind Cat’s Meow as they purchased the boat at auction from the DEA who had seized the boat from a drug dealer a while back.  I wonder if the Coast Guard has them on a “watch list”.

What a boat.  HUGE, doesn’t begin to describe it.  For a stove they have a 6 burner Wolf oven, the type you might find in a commercial kitchen.  It’s quite a stove.  And, they have a “butler’s pantry” off of their cabin.  Alas, no butler aboard.  “Get your own ice.” Speaking of the Coast Guard, back in February, a sailboat from Canada had gone up on a reef off of Cuba and was in danger.  Some local fishing boats helped get them off and the boat was repaired.  As the hull was steel, the damage was minimal. However, in the process of trying to get help, they had contacted the US Coast Guard who, as you can imagine, declined to help them as they were in Cuban waters.  

So, fast forward a few months, to when they tried to clear customs in Florida and they ran into real difficulty as they had been put on a “list” as someone who had “traded with the enemy” in Cuba.  As a result, their boat was denied entry into the US and were told that they could continue up the coast to their home port in Canada but that they could no longer leave the boat in the US for the summer, as they have done for the last few years.

I know that Americans are not allowed to visit Cuba but thought that it was OK for citizens from countries that do not have a trade embargo with them to visit and then come to the US.  It seems that as they had decided to visit the US directly from Cuba, they were somehow in violation of American law.  Oops…

I don’t know much about the finer points of the law but it seems that they are in a bit of a fix as to get just about anywhere south from Canada requires being able to stop in US waters.  Perhaps if they had cleared into the Bahamas instead of going to the US directly from Cuba they might have been better off. Who knows.  Not a good situation to be in at all.  It would be interesting to hear more.

Brenda and I would love to visit Cuba but have no interest in running afoul of Customs in the US.  Perhaps in time, we’ll have an opportunity.  (That’s to visit Cuba, not to run afoul of US customs, just to be clear.)

Now for a particularly jarring change of topic…. There’s a very “interesting” boat anchored nearby.  Jumbo, and it’s anything but…  If form follows function, I wonder what the function of Jumbo is.    So, if Cat’s Meow is huge than Jumbo isn’t.  Perhaps they should trade names.  Jumbo looks more like a Tylenol capsule than a boat.   I hope Jumbo‘s owners don’t see this post as I wouldn’t want them to be offended.  Jumbo is quite cute, actually.  I wonder where their home port is.  Probably not France, although it would be quite at home on a canal there but perhaps less at home on the open ocean getting there.I have to say that yesterday was the nastiest day we’ve had in our two winters in the Bahamas.  However, today, the morning after, is a new day and what a beautiful day it is.   Here’s  a shot of Pandora off of Monument Beach.   It’s named after the “monument” on top of the hill which shows just to the right of Pandora.  Perhaps we’ll take a walk up there later today.I’ll close with a picture we took last winter when our son’s Rob and Chris, along with Rob’s girlfriend Kandice, visited the monument with us.    Now that was a great day.

It’s Wednesday morning early and I have the SSB radio on and am waiting for Chris Parker, the weather router to begin his 06:30 broadcast.  Yesterday was pretty windy and quite a chop built up here in Georgetown Harbor.  Georgetown is quite a large harbor and while it is protected from all directions, the distances are quite long as the harbor is one mile wide and ten long.   As a result, when the wind directions change, folks move from one side of the harbor to the other and then back again.  It’s called the “Georgetown Shuffle”.  How quaint.

However, if you have to weather a front, and we have one coming, yet again, Georgetown is a pretty good place to do it.

During the broadcast, Chris Parker had lots to say about the front that’s coming through now, which is a pretty strong one in spite of it being fairly late in the season.  Normally, spring is the time when things settle down here from a weather standpoint.  However, this season continues with one nasty cold front after another penetrating the area on a more or less weekly basis.  Have I mentioned that there have been a LOT of fronts this winter?

As of today Chris noted that he expects that we will have yet ANOTHER front early next week and even ANOTHER the following week.  As Rob and Kandice are going to be with us beginning in about two weeks, I sure hope that things begin to settle down by that time.  As nice as it is to be in the Bahamas in the winter, this front-after-front deal, for months on end, is becomming a bit tiresome.

You may recall that I wrote a few weeks ago about my trials with assembling crew for the run north in May.  Getting folks to commit to heading 1,000 miles aboard is always tough and this year has not been an exception.  When the departure date is far out in the future, it’s easy to get crew to say yes but as the departure date nears, things come up and plans change.

I have been moving boats around with crew since the early 80s and getting crew then was tough then and is still tough now.   However the distances that I move boats now is much further as way back when, a 100 mile run was a long way.

As you can imagine, getting people with busy schedules to commit to be aboard, with weather delays, for as much as two weeks, to make a run from the Bahamas to CT is a big deal.  And, as the date for departure approaches schedules change.  It’s no surprise that it’s easy to say YES in February when winter winds are blowing snow around.  ANYONE would say yes to heading south.  Right?

However, in spite of changes in schedules and family obligations from crew, I was able to arrange for crew this year as well.  SUCCESS!!

Here’s the plan.  (Take notes as there will be a quiz)  Here goes… On May 5^th, Brenda flies out of Nassau to Baltimore to visit Rob’s home for a few days prior to heading to CT after that.  The same day Rich, one of my crew, flies to Nassau.  It’s possible that Rob will stick around, following our week with him and Kandice in the Bahamas, and make the run with me and Rich aboard Pandora to Charleston where we will meet up with George.  Rob would then fly home from Charleston with Rich and George continuing on to Essex with me.

Of course, this is all dependent on good weather for leaving Nassau on the 6^th as planned.  If we are delayed, and that could easily happen (think cold fronts), Rob will just head out from Nassau with Brenda and Kandice.  In that case, me and Rich will take Pandora to Charleston, as soon as we are able, to meet up with George.  George’s plans don’t put him in Charleston till a week after Rich meets me in Nassau.   Following this so far?  I think I do.

One way or the other, we will make it home and I am very much looking forward to the trip.  It’s just not certain how long it’s going to take.

While Charleston is a bit out of the way to head home, I am excited about a visit as it’s a beautiful city and getting reasonably priced flights from there is easy.

Brenda and I spent a week there on our trip down the ICW in fall of 2012.  How about a few pictures from our visit there?

We’ll likely tie up at the city Marina.  There’s Pandora on the dock.  I expect you are so busy looking at Pandora you missed the bridge.  Beautiful.Lots of huge oak trees.  A bit of a contrast to the Bahamas.  The islands of the Bahamas once had trees of this scale but they were all cut down by early settlers following the American Revolution in an ill fated attempt to grow cotton and other crops as they had in the southern US.Lovely homes everywhere.  And white, the color of choice. And, the Bahamas, with “world class” sunsets, doesn’t have a lock on beautiful ways to end the day.  How about a stately schooner and the setting sun as the day winds down?So, here’s the deal.  Winters in the south and summers in tbe north.  Works for me, fronts and all.  

And, as we continue the “Georgtown Shuffle” my thoughts are indeed turning to spring and our home up north.   Yes, something to look forward to.  Spring is here.

It’s Sunday around mid-day and we are enjoying a perfect sail back to Georgetown from Long Island.  The wind is behind us and we are cruising along with the water chuckling alongside.  Life is good.

Brenda’s up in the cockpit reading and keeping watch and I am down in the cabin typing away.  It’s a beautiful day.

Here’s the view out of the cockpit.  Puffy clouds, blue sky and perfectly clear water.  Even though we are miles from land it’s less than 20’ deep.  Such is sailing on the Bahamas Banks.On Saturday we rented a car and toured the island with our friends Dick and Anne of Nati.  I have written about them before and we really enjoy spending time with them. 

We stopped in Clarence Town for lunch and had the best grilled fish soft tacos EVER.  And let me tell you that there aren’t a load of places that serve great food to choose from in these parts. 

Long Island has some beautiful old Anglican and Catholic churches that are beautifully kept by their congregations.  This is one that we stopped to visit. The interior was simple and very peaceful.A well known priest here in Long Island was Father Jerome who had a very big impact on the island.  One of his best known churches is in Clarence Town.  What a beautiful spot.  Looks like the top of the right hand tower was struck by lightening.   Perhaps one of parishioners was thinking “impure thoughts”.   Something to think about.  Right?You can climb up into the towers if you have the nerve.  I had enough nerve to climb the narrow and very steep ladders, one after another, to reach the top but not quite enough nerve to do anything once I got to the top.  Once I arrived I was just about frozen and couldn’t take my hands off of the nearly vertical ladder to use my camera.

Oh well, Dick climbed up the other tower and mugged for the camera.  Reminded me of one of the characters from the old TV show Laugh In from the 60s, or was it the 70s?  Hmm…I took this shot of the view from one of the towers last year.  I guess I had more nerve last time.  Go figure.We also visited the deepest “blue hole” in the world, Deans Blue Hole.  In case you are wondering, it’s located in Deans LI.  No surprise there but I did find myself wondering if there was a “mister Deans”.  Blue holes are formed when seawater leaches away the bedrock and creates underwater caves that lead to the ocean.  These “holes” are all over the Bahamas with some being only a few feet across and other 100s of feet across.  Deans has the distinction of being the deepest in the world at 660 feet deep.  Question: If it’s 660′ deep is that at low or high tide? Perhaps they are averaging.  I won’t be checking that fact myself anytime soon.  

And, it’s the site of competition “free diving” where folks hold their breath and swim down, and back up, on a single breath.  Sounds nuts to me.  There’s a plaque nearby that commemorates three swimmers that have lost their lives here.  And, I know that another diver lost his life last fall and wasn’t listed so that’s four at least.  It’s a very dangerous sport. 

While we were there the current champion free diver was practicing. His current record is 100 meters.  That’s over 300 feet deep.   Just the thought freaks me out.  He’s the guy with the cute cap.  Pretty “hunky” guys.  Yes?They swim off of a platform that has a wire suspended that they follow on their way down and back up again.  The wire is reeled down to a chosen depth to guide them so that they know when they have reached their goal.   They also wear wetsuits and carry just enough weight to counteract the buoyancy of the suit. If you are also interested, you can buy a decent man scuba suit, here.

Another popular pastime here is to jump off of one of the surrounding cliffs.  Not sure I’d have the guts to do this either.  Here’s a guy that did.  I took some solace in seeing him stand there for quite a while till he took the plunge.Oh yeah, and here’s a shot of one of the “locals” that was peeking out of a hole in the surrounding cliff.  He, I guess it was a he, was sharing his “home” with a little hermit crab.  Brenda opted to pass on trying to pet him.On our way back to Pandora we were going to take a guided cave tour. However, the “proprietor” was out at the airport picking up a friend so there was  nobody to take us.   I expect that he was the “chief cook and bottle washer” too.   No luck there.  

We also tried to visit the Long Island museum, which we have heard is terrific.  Alas, closed.  Of course you’d expect it to be closed on a Saturday afternoon, right?  Not… So, what are a couple of tourists on “tour” for the day to do?

Here’s an idea.  How about a visit to a local bar?  It must be 5pm somewhere.  No wait, it was Saturday afternoon so it’s OK. 

Confident that it was indeed a “good time”, we followed a sign on the side of the road and there it was, “Seaside Village”.  Perfect. Actually, the entire “village” consisted of a dock with a bar perched on the end.  I guess he could call it a village as there was a half finished guest house, no make that 20% finished, along with a goat and chickens.  You heard it, goats and chickens.   Here’s the main attraction.  The bar.Not exactly a resort or much less a village but a lot of fun.  Here’s our crew. When was the last time you were at a bar with a goat?  Probably never, I’ll bet.  Then you have never been to the Bahamas mon.  Chickens?

Here’s Brenda, fiber lover, petting the resident beach bar goat.  A moment later she butted Brenda in the leg.  “bar fight!”  I guess it’s his/her way of showing love.  What a hoot.Did somebody say goat? Here’s  a few (sheep actually) I spied earlier in the day hanging our at the Clarence Town police station.  Yes, the police station.   That evening, not to let a moment pass unproductively, we headed over to Chez Pierre for dinner.  The owner and chef is Pierre, as you would expect.  I think he’s been running this place for about 15 years and is known for having one of the best dining spots in the Bahamas. 

It’s also perhaps the most remote as it is located several miles off of the beaten path down a badly rutted dirt road.  It’s so far from the road that Pierre has never had power lines run from the main road and uses his own generator that purrs along all day and night.  Pierre also has a few guest rooms. 

It’s a beautiful spot, right on the beach.  However, as the water is so shallow, the closest that we could get with Pandora to shore would be about ¾ of a mile. The view from the dining room is very peaceful. The building is fairly rustic but inside it’s a different story.  Quite unique.We had a terrific time.   I think that the only other folks dining that evening were guests that were staying in the cottages on the property. 

As a funny anecdote, Pierre has a selection of wines to choose from with prices penned on their labels.  When I asked him about a French Chardonnay that I was considering, he grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me over to another guest’s table.  He picked up their bottle of wine from the ice bucket and poured a taste for me. I couldn’t believe it.  He gave me a taste from someone else’s bottle, without asking…

It was good, so I ordered a bottle, and everyone seemed to be amused by the incident.  Just try doing that in New York.  You’d stand a good chance of being shot or at least punched.  “Hey you, buddy! Skinny guy!  What’s you think you doin, sippin on my Chianti?  I’m gunna punch your lights out.  Get outa hea!”

All and all, a lovely day.  And, we even were able to find our way back to Pandora in the dark, a 1.5 mile ride from the dock where we landed.

No, we still haven’t arrived in Georgetown and are still sailing along merrily.

Today, it is indeed “about the journey” and a lovely journey it is. Alas, as they say “it’s better in the Bahamas”.  Indeed, roadtrip or not.

It’s Friday morning and we are back in Thompson Bay Long Island (that’s the southern LI, not the one in the USA and it’s a LOT different).  Yesterday we had a ROUSING sail back to Thompson Bay, hard on the wind from the north end of the island where we had spent Wednesday night with our friends on Nati.

On Thursday morning Dick, from Nati, and I went snorkeling on a very nice reef near where we were anchored prior to heading back here.  I have to say that the reef was one of the nicest I have seen with a great variety of fish and coral.  The water wasn’t terribly clear but with about 30’ of visibility it was quite beautiful.  The prior afternoon we had gone into the mangrove swamp to do a bit of exploring and on our way back to Pandora we ran into a cruiser who had been fishing with a spear on the same reef.

We asked to see what he had caught and were impressed with the very large trigger fish he had speared.  We were also blown away by two beautiful large shells he had collected. I am not sure what type they were but they were beautiful and about a foot long.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have the presence of mind to get a photo.  Oh well.  Both Dick and I just had to find one too so that’s why we decided to go for a swim.  Unfortunately, no luck but the views on the reef were terrific.  Actually, the variety of coral, sponges and fish were the best we’ve seen.  Very nice.

Our run back here was a bit too exciting as the apparent wind was gusting into the mid 20s and we were hard on the wind really heeling over.   However, the seas were calm so it wasn’t that bad.  I’d love to have a run that isn’t quite so windy which hasn’t happened in a while.  Have I mentioned that this winter has been particularly windy?  Thought so.   We might get lucky as Sunday, as we will be going down wind and it’s supposed to be lighter then.  I think we will head back to Georgetown to avoid the exposed harbor here when the winds clock ahead of the cold front that is expected early next week.

The Bahamas are primarily arid with the only rain that falls being from squalls, usually associated with a frontal passage, or during tropical storms, hurricanes, in the summer months.  That means that water is in pretty short supply much of the year.  As a result, the islands only have vegetation that can stand extremely dry conditions.

As much of the Bahamas are very shallow (you can be miles from shore and still be in less than 10′, or less, of water) mangroves are fairly common.   Mangroves grow in water that is very shallow and can pop up wherever there is fairly sheltered thin water.  These areas often dry out at low tide and have miles of winding shallow channels running through them.  When we anchored in the northern part of Long Island we were just offshore of a large area of shallows and mangroves.  This shot shows how shallow the water is and just how insignificant Pandora looked anchored off of the lee of a small island with Nati.  Pandora’s on the left. We took our dinks up into the shallows to do a bit of exploring.  Here’s Dick and Anne in their dink.I am always so fascinated with the change in color of the water depending on the depth.  Generally speaking, the darker the water the deeper it is, but not always.  You can be sure that water that is very light in color is very shallow.  The contrast of the blue of the water to the blue of the sky is so dramatic. As we were sailing back south to Thompson Bay I got some great shots of Nati.  Dick and Anne have lived aboard full time for the last 6 years.  While Nati is only 38’ long, she has three times the room of Pandora.  And, as we were sailing along, heeled on our ear, they were sailing flat and even a bit faster than we were.  Doesn’t Dick look relaxed? He was.I have to say that the idea of a catamaran is getting more appealing every day.  However, sailing in Maine with two engines and props in the water, one in each hull, is a bit daunting with all those lobster pots to snag.  It’s worth nothing that while there are loads of cats here in the Bahamas there are very few in New England.   However, it seems that catamarans are becoming more popular every year.  To step aboard one tells the story as they are very comfortable and have so much more room than boats like Pandora.  We’ll see… 

However, right now I have to figure out how to round up crew for the trip north in May.  Unfortunately, while I thought I was all set a month ago, changes in schedules and a bit of lack of clarity on my part mean that I am back to ground zero with no crew.  Oops.

While having a full month till I leave may sound like a long time to recruit crew, it really isn’t as most of the folks I know have made plans already on other boats and can’t join me.  I have sent out more invites and am hopeful that I will be able to fill in for the run north.

Getting things squared away for a long run in the crew department is always challenging and I am particularly stressed out now.  Hopefully, it will all work out.  Brenda says so and she’s not even that optimistic usually.  I am trusting her on this.

Want to go sailing?

It’s Wednesday morning and we are still here in Thompson Bay Long Island.  Yesterday we decided NOT to head over to the Jumentos, after all my posts to the contrary, as the weather for next week is looking fairly nasty.  As I mentioned many times, the Jumentos are not well protected when fronts come through and it looks like the next one will be fairly bad as has been the case much of the winter.  As a friend told me yesterday, “the Jumentos will still be there next year”.   Indeed.

Happily, there is plenty to do here on Long Island as it’s quite large.  So, the plan is to do some short sails to the northern part of the island over the next few days and then come back here to where it is “sort of” protected from the expected clocking winds.  Actually, it’s exposed to the south west but hopefully, the winds won’t be from that direction for long or be very strong.

We also plan on renting a car for a few days to see the sights on LI.  Last year we did that and had a great time.  There is only one road that runs from north to south so it’s not hard to find your way around.  We are continuing to “buddy boat” with our friends on Nati so that will make the week even more enjoyable.

One of the things that I really enjoy visiting the Bahamas is watching the dramatic clouds.  Sometimes they are combined along with big winds as well but not always.  Can you say “squall”?  On our last night in Georgetown a front came through the area bringing with it quite a show.  We had drenching rain, if only for about 15-30 minutes.  It was nice to get Pandora rinsed off.  However that didn’t last long as our run over to LI the next day got the boat pretty salty.

I was particularly struck by the sunset that evening.  As the sun set we could still see blue sky above and the orange sun setting below.  It didn’t look real.  Quite a shot.A bit later, a beautiful sunset too.  It’s amazing to watch the light change as the minutes tick by. 

So, today a short 20 mile run north to an area called Joe’s Sound.  We heard that there are lots of sea turtles there.  Should be fun.

More to come but it’s time to shove off.

It’s Tuesday morning and we are in Thompson Bay LI.  Note that I actually know where I am and nobody even told me.  Actually, I called into Cruiseheimers and told them today.   At the very least, my saying it helps me remember.  Thompson Bay, Thompson Bay, Thompson Bay…

Pretty good for a guy who’s spent the last few months aboard dodging cold fronts.  And, I even know that it’s April Fools day.  I can’t think of a joke though.  Sorry…

Anyway, today is a lay day (not going anywhere today) and we plan on having lunch ashore with some friends at the only dining establishment that is near here.  Two couples that we are very fond of Dick and Ann on Nati and Miles and Loreen on Ariel came over for dinner last night.  We had loads of fun and Brenda put on quite a spread.  And, I did a ton of dishes.

Speaking of water (did you follow that segue?), we can’t run our watermaker here in Thompson Bay as the water is a milky color with a very fine sediment that will clog the filters.  Actually, it looks like Bahmas blue skim milk.  Well, skim milk has always looked a little blue to me.  Why is that?

Perhaps if there was a pool of milk 6-10’ deep it would look like the water here.  Perhaps not…  Not sure where I am going with this.   The water is made milky by  a very fine sand dust that floats in the water.  The anchor holds well here but the top layer of the bottom is very, very soft sand that is easily stirred up.

Stirred up?  Did I hear stirred up?  I am all about that as I am STILL having trouble calling my mother. My phone just won’t go through to her land line.  I guess that I should just accept that I won’t be able to connect with her.  MOM!!! I have really tried.   Quite frustrating.   Perhaps I should just admit defeat for now.  That’s a tough one for me.  However, I am retired so perhaps I should try to be less persistent.   Hmm…

It seems that her phone, a land line (Yes, some folks still have those if you can believe it) won’t accept phone calls that don’t have caller ID.  Yes, I get that and changed my Bahamas line so that the number would show up.  However, it only works occasionally and without a pattern that I have been able to detect.  Oh well.

After perhaps ten, count em, ten visits to the BATELCO stores on various islands, they just don’t know what to do to solve the problem.  Sometimes the calls go though, sometimes they don’t.  And, I hate being charged for the “don’t” ones.  Perhaps it’s a Yankee thing or my Scottish heritage showing through.

So now that we have situated ourselves here in Thompson Bay, we are a day sail from the Jumentos, a place that we have wanted to check out since we first sarted talking about visiting the Bahamas.   With all of the difficult weather of late, and the “wind from all directions” that we have experienced this winter, we have to decide if we are ready to head into the “wilderness”.  And to say “wilderness” is saying a lot given the fact that just about EVERYWHERE here in the Bahamas is pretty rural.

The weather for this week looks quite good but there is yet another front expected in about a week and it’s too early to tell if there will be clocking winds this far south.  This matters as the Jumentos have very few harbors that are protected from any winds with a westerly component.  You can move around as the wind clocks but the options are quite limited.  Perhaps I would feel a bit better if we had a “buddy boat” to go with us.  We’ll have to see.  Our friends on Ariel and Nati are both headed north so that’s not an option.

Nati, in particular talked to us about visiting the Jumentos as they spent much of the month of March there.  They said that these remote islands are a “must see” and couldn’t recommend it more highly.   They say that the two best reasons to visit here are for the diving and for the beach combing.  As Brenda’s not too keen on snorkeling (it’s a “girl eating” shark thing) the next best thing for us to do is beach combing.  That sounds perfect.

Another thing that was recommended to me today is fishing for bonefish.  Bonefish are great fighters and such fun to catch.  Perhaps I should try catching some.  Bonefish love the shallows and do much of their feeding in water that is only a few feet deep.  You can catch them with bait on a light rod.  They aren’t great eating (that’s why they call them BONE fish, I guess) but are perhaps the ultimate game fish as they really fight.

I don’t have any new photos of note to share so I’ll reach back a few weeks to when we visited Compass Cay up in the Exumas.  This is a private island with a small marina and some really nice homes.  If you recall, this is the place where they feed nurse sharks at the dock and encourage folks to swim with them.  So far,  Brenda hasn’t “taken the bait” and gone into the water at feeding time. Perhaps on our next visit.

Anyway, at the most northern tip of the island there is a spot called the “bubble bath”.  I wrote about it at the time we visited it but didn’t have an opportunity to share any photos due to difficulties with cell service and uploading photos.  However, now that we have good coverage for posting, I thought that I would share a sequence with you that’s pretty neat.

The “bubble bath” is small salt water pool that is not attached to the ocean on the north end of the island.  Ocean swells coming from the north are funneled into a narrow area cut in the rock.  As the cut narrows, the waves build up much higher than you’d expect.  At the head of the cut there is an area that is above the tide but low enough so that the water just sloshes up and over the reef.  Then the “foam” pours over into a protected pool on the other side in a fountain of white.

Here’s the sequence…

This is how the cut looks toward the ocean.  It’s not that big, actually.You can see that the water on the left, the ocean side, is low and rock is exposed.As the waves rush in the water rises 5-8’ very quickly and tons of foam develops.Then, the foam spills dramatically over the rocks and into the pool.  It’s pretty fascinating to watch.  It looks quite violent but isn’t.  Folks come here to swim in the pool.  We plan on bringing our son Rob and his girlfriend Kandice here in late April when they visit us. 

This is where you beach your dink to make the trek across through the Mangrove flats.  It’s very beautiful.  As you walk through here you can easily imagine being thousands of miles from anywhere.  And, how’s that for clear water?   Amazing actually. I guess it’s time to make coffee.  Enough of this posting stuff for now.

It’s Saturday morning and, FINALLY, the wind has settled down.  After a few days of winds in the 20s and all the bumping around that comes with that, it’s wonderful to wake up to what feels, by comparison, like a gentle zephyr.  I listened to Chris Parker, the weather router again this morning at 06:30.  That’s pretty early and I have to say that I never thought that I would be setting an alarm each day I’m aboard.  I thought that alarms were a work thing…  However, Sunday Chris is off so I can sleep in tomorrow.  I’ll probably wake up early anyway.   Such is the trials of being a cruiser.  Feel sorry for me?  My brother Bill’s response might be something like “Shut up.  Are you F&^%$#@ nuts? It’s snowing here.”

I won’t think about that for now.  Did I say that the wind is less today?  Yahoo!!!  We were beginning to think that that the wind was NEVER going to drop to a reasonable level as it has been one front after another for the last two months that we have been in the Bahamas.  However, it seems that there’s light at the end of the tunnel as Chris said this morning that the coming week should be BEAUTIFUL with winds in the southern Bahamas from a reasonable direction and in the 15kt range with no major fronts likely to penetrate this far south. That’s good, very good.

With that in mind, it looks like we will be heading east to Thompson Bay Long Island on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning.  After that we will likely head southwest to the Jumentos as I talked about in yesterday’s post.

Today we’ll probably head back into town for a few chores and yet another visit to the BATELCO (Bahamas Telephone) store to try and sort out the problems of calling my mother.  She is the ONLY person I call that has a land line and for some reason I cannot get through to her number on my Bahamas cell phone.   Unfortunately, the BATELCO folks can’t seem to figure this out and we have tried everything to solve the problem.  For a while we thought it was the phone so I purchased a new one.  It worked in the store but not back at the boat.  Very frustrating.  And, to make matters worse, each time I try to call her and it doesn’t go through I still get charged for the call.

Anyway, such are details of the cruising life in a rural country.   Perhaps I am being punished for ditching my mother for a few months.  Hmm…

Speaking of traveling home to see my mother, I have been working on getting crew for the run from Nassau to Essex in May and after a month or so of corresponding with folks back in the States, I think I am about set.  As most folks have limits on the time they can be away,  I will likely make a crew change along the way, probably in Beaufort NC.  Last year I made the 1,000 mile run without stopping but this year I’d like to be a bit more leisurely about it as keeping Pandora on the run for nearly a week without a break is a bit tiring.   Perhaps I am getting old.  No, I prefer to think of it as “effort management”.   Yes, that’s better.

Well, the sun is up and getting higher and the day is getting away from me.  No exciting pix to share with you.   No, wait.  Here’s a nice shot of me and Brenda in front of the local beach bar when we visited last year.   Chat and Chill.  Now, doesn’t that sound like a “it’s the Bahamas mon” sort of place? And a view from the bar.  Yes, a good spot to “chat and chill” from.   And, of course, there are some very helpful signs to be sure you know how far you are from just about anywhere.  That’s very comforting.